If Bob Hardaway is still with us, I bet he has some stories to tell about his dad. I hope someone follows up this.

So…Mel Blanc gave Hardaway’s nickname to the rabbit? First time I’ve heard that variation.

My understanding is Bugs Bunny got his name because the original model sheet said [Bugs’ Bunny] on the top.

OMG I want that Bugs plushie!

What a great story! Cool to hear a jazz connection with Hardaway’s son.

Didn’t Mel Blanc originally do the voice of Woody Woodpecker followed by Walter Lantz’ wife, Gracie?

Excerpted from The Walter Lantz Story by Joe Adamson: “Mel Blanc was no longer supplying Woody’s voice; an exclusive contract with Leon Schlesinger to provide the voice for Bugs, Daffy, Porky and nearly every other character at the Warner Studio . . . prevented him from working for any other producer. Woody’s voice was a sped track anyway . . . so the matter of who provided the voice was academic: Almost any voice, raised to that pitch, produced the same effect. After experimenting with one or two other actors, Walter finally settled for the nearest warm body with an inherent understanding of the character, and that was Bugs Hardaway, who proceeded to do Woody’s voice until the end of the decade. (Except the maniacal laugh. That piece of film on which Blanc recorded that … was the source for every laugh the bird uttered until the fifties.)” That is where Grace (Stafford) Lantz took over. Since the Woody Woodpecker cartoons on volume 1 of the DVD set are in chronological order, you can pretty much pinpoint where Mel Blanc stopped and where Hardaway took over. There’s one voice in there that sounds a bit like Pinto Colvig to me. If you can find a copy of Adamson’s book its well worth getting, especially as a supplement to the DVD sets.

We should get him to post here. He’ll probably clear up a few mysteries behind Bugs’ conception.

Bob Hardaway is easy to reach and perfectly pleasant as I last spoke with him. I tracked him down easily with a simple phone search some years ago as I had become interested in the story of Bugs Hardaway. Bob is a highly acclaimed musician who is able to play several different instruments. He still lives in the home that Bugs purchased.
It was Bob that told me about his father having suffered the health consequences of having been gassed by the Germans and he was suprised to hear that I knew something of the “Dizzy D”. He seems, to me, willing to take phone calls and discuss his memories of Bugs